Does yerba mate normally have a minty taste? I ordered yerba mate from teasource.com, and it has a minty taste. From the previous posts in this thread, I wonder if it's flavored, or scented so more people would like it.

No yerba mate does not typically have a minty taste. Normally you will find a bold slightly smoky (if smoky kind) or very bold vegetal taste. What company did you order your mate from? Sometimes companies do flavor mate to make it more appealing to the american consumer, so you might have encountered that.

Cool, if you plan on ordering from aviva, I would recommend that you go to their site and subscribe for their newsletter (free). Every month they send out a newsletter, in some of which they offer some pretty good deals on their mate. Also since everyones taste are different, I would start off with a small order from them and then go for bigger orders.

Excuse me if I am repeating points already brought up in this thread (I may have skimmed over a few responses in my haste...) but two things ought to be brought up when discussing Mate:

1.) It does, in fact, contain caffiene (according to certain national newspapers).
2.) Before knocking Yerba Mate altogether, Yerba Mate Chai ought be tasted, if only for the hell of it. It is rather decent.

Welcome to the community Yellville...I hate to start off my introduction by disagreeing with one of your statements. Although, national newspapers state that mate has caffeine, it can be argued that mate instead has a different chemical compound known as mateine. Mateine is different in that it does not cause jitters or have any of the negative aspects of caffeine.

To this day, scientists have argued as to whether mate has mateine or caffeine, and since there has been to little research on the subject, it is hard to tell who is right.

From what I have heard, mateine is caffeine is theine - absolutely and without debate.

The debate though, is how much of "caffeine"'s effect comes from the compound itself or the combination of caffeine and other chemicals, which line up differently in tea and mate than in coffee, for the better.

TeaFanatic wrote:Welcome to the community Yellville...I hate to start off my introduction by disagreeing with one of your statements. Although, national newspapers state that mate has caffeine, it can be argued that mate instead has a different chemical compound known as mateine. Mateine is different in that it does not cause jitters or have any of the negative aspects of caffeine.

To this day, scientists have argued as to whether mate has mateine or caffeine, and since there has been to little research on the subject, it is hard to tell who is right.

Until recently actually, I had no idea that there was a difference in types of yerba mate, because personally I cannot tell if there is a difference. Aviva is not very smoky because it is shade grown, and I don't think that they roast it, but rather just let it sit out in the sun (kinda like green tea). It still has a slightly astringent taste because that is what yerba tastes like but it is not on the smoky side, at least for my tastes.

Darth Jeeling...what brand of yerba did you try? I would suggest that you try a higher quality brand if you feel up to trying yerba again. Aviva (yerba-mate.com) and cruz de malta (gauchogourmet.com) come to mind for me if you want to give yerba another shot.

Mm, might be worth a try. I'll let you know if I get some. The stuff I had was at a friend's, so I can't tell you the brand. Truthfully, the best part of drinking it was using the little strainer-hookah thing.